Black material too dark in rendered 3D view

[seagsauer]

Trying to do a quick rendered 3D view of cookline, but the black grates of the open burners and charbroiler look like black holes in the 3D.  Any way to lighten just those materials?

[RDAOU]

@seagsauer 

Check their material under Appearance Tab in the material browser

[syman2000]

What is the RGB value for black? 0,0,0? I would bump it up slightly so it looks like dark grey and still look black in render. If you go full black regardless how much light you placed, it will still look black.

[barthbradley]

Looks like a Realistic View - not a Rendered View.  Try turning Thin Lines (TL) ON.  Betcha it looks better when  Rendered as well. 

[barthbradley]

...additionally - putting Rendering aside -  it looks like an awful lot of line work. Looks like the actual grate design was modeled.  If so, even with the thinnest line weight that grate will be appear (and print) very dense in some views.  Do you have different grates showing at different Detail Levels?  If not, you might simplify the design or hide the grate entirely for those views where it appears too dense (e.g. too black).